Tim Smyth's 'Defective Carrots' Shows Off Optically Deficient Veggies

'Defective Carrots' by Tim Smyth features photographs of malformed vegetables. The grotesque and strange shapes show carrots that were judged not good enough for consumer consumption. Typically these 'optically deficient' veggies end up in animal food troughs or as waste when they come off the conveyor belt. However, Smyth's work explores the cliche 'one man's trash is another man's treasure.' This book includes 56 different defective carrots that would otherwise never have seen the light of day.

The deformed carrots were deemed inedible by a scanning software called Focus, which looks for defects like fanging, scabbing and crookedness. These deformities often give the carrots the appearance of crossed legs, diseased digits and undersea urchins. Some even have an erotic quality to them.